By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Spirited is far from the first adaptation of A Christmas Carol, let alone the first comedic or musical one. But the film, which serves as a full-on reimagining of the Charles Dickens story done as a modern musical complete with Broadway-style songs by Benji Pasek and Justin Paul… Read More Review: Spirited (Apple TV+)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest film from Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Bardo (full title Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths) finds the Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker in introspective mode and working in the Spanish language for the first time since Biutiful in 2010, to craft a semi-autobiographical tale of identity and belonging,… Read More Review: Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) How did Mickey Mouse go from lovable cartoon character to ubiquitous corporate symbol? That’s the question asked in the enjoyable Disney+ documentary Mickey: The Story of a Mouse, which explores the history of how Mickey’s visage – made out of three simple circles – has become one of… Read More Disney+ Review: Mickey: The Story of a Mouse
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The South African-set survival thriller Beast is a movie that is basically built around the prospect of seeing Idris Elba fight a lion. Sure, you could maybe argue there’s a little more to it, but barely, as the film’s pulpy thrills are essentially built around seeing man versus,… Read More Blu-ray Review: Beast (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Jerry & Marge Go Large is the vaguely “based on a true story” tale of Jerry Selbee (Bryan Cranston) and his wife Marge (Annette Bening), an older married couple who discover a loophole that lets them win the lottery every three weeks without fail. Jerry has just retired… Read More DVD Review: Jerry & Marge Go Large
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Tim Allen is back as Scott Calvin, the single dad who inexplicably took up the mantle of Santa Claus, in the new Disney+ limited series The Santa Clauses, which is having its two-episode premiere this week. Building on the trilogy of films that began in 1994 with The… Read More Disney+ Review: The Santa Clauses (First Two Episodes)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of November 11th, 2022. Theatrical Releases: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Wide Release): This week’s biggest release is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, director Ryan Coogler’s sequel to his 2018 Marvel phenomenon that arrives in the wake of star Chadwick Boseman’s death. This is one of those movies that… Read More New This Week (11/11/2022): Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Falling for Christmas, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) How do you go about making a sequel to a blockbuster film when the star of said film has tragically and unexpectedly passed away? That’s the moral conundrum faced by director Ryan Coogler with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a follow up to his 2018 Marvel film that arrives… Read More Review: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Disney returns to the richly populated world of their 2016 animated film Zootopia in the aptly titled Disney+ series Zootopia+, a collection of six short films set in the animal metropolis. But rather than being a direct sequel to the movie, Zootopia+ is instead a collection of off-shoot… Read More Disney+ Review: Zootopia+
By John Corrado To mark the film’s 45th anniversary this year, Paramount is releasing the classic Saturday Night Fever for the first time in 4K Ultra HD. Directed by John Badham, the 1977 film stars John Travolta in an Oscar-nominated role as Tony Manero, a working class Italian-American kid from Brooklyn who blows what money… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Saturday Night Fever: 45-Year Anniversary Edition
By John Corrado New releases for the week of November 4th, 2022. Theatrical Releases: Armageddon Time (Wide Release): James Gray’s semi-autobiographical film is inspired by his own childhood in Queen’s, New York, following the 11-year-old Paul (Banks Repeta) and his friendship with Johnny (Jaylin Webb), the one Black kid in his public school class. If… Read More New This Week (11/04/2022): Armageddon Time, The Swearing Jar, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) James Gray’s Armageddon Time finds the writer-director digging into his own childhood experiences to craft a mostly engaging coming of age story set during the Reagan-era. The year is 1980, and Paul Graff (Banks Repeta, playing the film’s stand-in for a young Gray) is an 11-year-old Jewish boy… Read More Review: Armageddon Time
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Top Gun: Maverick. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original theatrical review right here. It’s the biggest movie of the year so far, and now Top Gun: Maverick is arriving on 4K… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Top Gun: Maverick
By John Corrado Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and Universal Pictures Home Entertaining is releasing a new Blu-ray edition of the film in honour of this milestone. I first saw E.T. as a nine-year-old kid in 2002, when the film was released on DVD for the first time… Read More Blu-ray Review: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: 40th Anniversary Edition
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Halloween Ends is the third film in director David Gordon Green’s reboot trilogy that began with Halloween in 2018, a legacy sequel that saw Jamie Lee Curtis return to the role of Laurie Strode, the babysitter who first evaded masked killer Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s 1978 original.… Read More Review: Halloween Ends
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 28th, 2022. Theatrical Releases: The Banshees of Inisherin (Limited Release): The fourth film from writer-director Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin was one of the very best films I saw at TIFF this year. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson star as Pádraic and Colm, two… Read More New This Week (10/28/2022): The Banshees of Inisherin, Decision to Leave, Aftersun, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Drinkwater is a 1980s-inspired Canadian coming of age film set in Penticton, B.C. that centres around Mike Drinkwater (Daniel Doheny), an awkward teen boy who wants to get the girl and hopefully get into college to get out of his small town. The Bruce Lee-obsessed Mike is stuck… Read More Review: Drinkwater
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Wendell & Wild, which is being released directly to Netflix for Halloween following its premiere at TIFF, is the latest stop motion film from director Henry Selick, the creative mastermind behind classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. This is Selick’s first film since the Neil Gaiman… Read More Review: Wendell & Wild (Netflix)
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the Blu-ray release of Nope. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original theatrical review right here. After being released in theatres over the summer, Universal Pictures is releasing Jordan Peele’s (Get Out, Us) third film Nope on Blu-ray… Read More Blu-ray Review: Nope (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 21st, 2022. Theatrical Releases: And Still I Sing (Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema): This documentary follows three female singers in Afghanistan, including controversial pop star and activist Aryana Sayeed, in the lead up to the Taliban regaining power for the first time in two decades.… Read More New This Week (10/21/2022): And Still I Sing, Black Adam, Raymond & Ray, & More!
The Joy of Movies 